Cross Country
Targeting Soldiers in an Amateur Plot
It's an oft-repeated nightmare scenario: small, homegrown terrorist cells planning jihad inside the United States. And it was presented yet again last week when the feds arrested six foreign nationals they describe as "radical Islamists" and charged them in a plot to target soldiers at the U.S. Army base at Fort Dix, N.J.
The men, from Turkey, Jordan, and the former Yugoslavia, were accused of trying to buy automatic weapons from an FBI informant in a sting operation. The FBI, which had infiltrated the group and watched them over a period of 15 months, said the men, three of whom were brothers, did not appear to have ties to organized terrorist groups. It was the latest in a string of arrests of alleged wannabe terrorists who seemed to have assimilated into their adopted country, then became radicalized against it.
The FBI has been faulted for some of these sting operations in which the alleged jihadists seemed to lack any resources to carry out their plots. But the recent mass killings by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech served as a sober reminder of how little it takes to carry out a devastating attack.
Online for All, an Interactive Zoo
Think of it as the MySpace of the animal kingdom. Over the next 10 years, a consortium of institutions and thousands of amateur contributors will attempt to compile an online catalog of all the Earth's 1.8 million known living species and make it available to everyone.
Unveiled in Washington, D.C., last week, the $50 million project will feature Web pages for each species and have maps, videos, sounds, and sightings by amateurs. Funded by nonprofit groups, it will be free at least for the first two years and accessible to users of varying sophistication, from fifth graders to research scientists.
This Movie Is Rated R for Smoking
Moviemakers can now add smoking to the vices sex and violence that will cost them family-friendly ratings. In a significant change to its rating system, the Motion Picture Association of America last week said that films that appear to glamorize tobacco use will risk R's and similar restrictive labels. The measure was a mixed victory for antismoking groups, who have sought and won advisories against smoking. They also call for prohibitions against tobacco-product placement in films. The MPA advisory board also did not guarantee that tobacco use would be weighted as heavily as sex and violence.
The change comes at a time when smoking has actually declined in movies. Between July 2004 and July 2006, the MPA said, the depictions of smoking dropped from 60 percent to 52 percent. In the same period, 75 percent of all films showing smoking were already rated R.
Narcotic Maker Guilty of Deceit
Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., and top current and former executives pleaded guilty last week in federal court in Abingdon, Va., to charges of misbranding the prescription drug OxyContin between 1996 and mid-2001 as being less addictive than other painkillers. The company and the execs will pay fines-to the tune of $634.5 million-for making the false claims.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration attributes scores of deaths to overdosing on the pills, also known as Hillbilly Heroinand OC. And high schoolers and college students have been especially likely to abuse the drug, says DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney. "It's right there in parents' medicine cabinet."
Speedy Trials: Here Only in Theory
It's perhaps the most thankless job in New Orleans: defending hundreds of indigent criminal defendants locked up in the city's overcrowded jails. Even before Hurricane Katrina hit, the 40 or so lawyers saddled with the task shared an office with only two telephones and not one computer. But then the storm flooded evidence rooms, destroyed records, and sent all but six public defenders packing, making it nearly impossible to ensure defendants accused of everything from purse snatching to murder a speedy trial.
So impossible that last week, New Orleans Judge Arthur Hunter Jr. suspended the trials of 98 jailed defendants and ordered 20 released without bail, enraging the district attorney and prompting an appellate court to temporarily delay the release. No matter who prevails, almost everyone involved agrees that the public defender system is broken. Some have pinned their hopes on a state bill that would revamp the way public defender offices are staffed and run."But then we have to come up with the funding and get everything set up, which could take until early next spring," says sponsor state Rep. Daniel Martiny. So much for ensuring a speedy trial.
With Chitra Ragavan, Chris Wilson, Sarah Baldauf, Alex Markels and Wire service reports
This story appears in the May 21, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.